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NEW YORK — The kitchen counter has come up a long way from its humble showtimes as a housewife’s supporter. No retentive viewed merely as a utilitarian workspace, it is nowed a polar part of modern kitchens and its design a regular raison d’etre for kitchen islands.

But do you know how to select between granite, laminate or some early material when duplicate a countertop to your kitchen activity and your permissiveness for stains? Consumer Reports offers these five tips:

See where you can salvage. Countertops typically cost betwixt USD 600 and USD 6,000 for 55 square pes, the average amount in a kitchen, according to the Fabricator Network, an connection of countertop makers and installers. You can trim costs by installment smaller, inexpensive stone leftovers instead of a single, premium-priced slab of stone. Save farther by emphasising a large, cost run of laminate counters with a small but beautiful piece of stone on the island. Get the big picture. Picturing your ruined project by the bantam samples most home betterment stores supply isn’t easy. What looks glamourous on a 2-by-2-inch sample may well kindle something from Frankenstein’s research laboratory when enlarged as a countertop. Lowe’s (web.lowes.com) and strong point store DuPont (www2.dupont.com) cancelled interactive style guides that let you take color and material alternatives and place them in practical settings. Think about your sink. Waterproof stuffs are a must if you want an undermounted sink. Stainless steel, solid surfacing and concrete are best-suited for unlined installations when the sinkhole material matches that of the counter. View seams. This small detail can hold a discernable impact. Post-formed laminate counters are seam-free from the front edge to the backsplash, but you’ll notice the creases where the two pieces meet. For nigh invisible seams, go for solid surface and stainless steel. Visit the stone pace. Unlike crystal, laminate or solid surfacing, stone can change from slab to slab and even inside the same slab. Don’t buy based on a shop sample but go to the stone pace and pick a part the color, woodgraining and veininging you opt.